Ore furnace and reducer



2 Sheets-Sheet. 1.

J BUJAC Ore Furnace and Reducer.

Patented Nov. 9, 1880.

2 Sheetssheet 2. J. BUJAC. Ore Furnace and Reducer. v

No. 234,170. Patented Nov. 9,1880.

fliiasi: I

N. PETE RS. PHOTO-LITHUGRAFNER, WASHINGTON. D C,

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JAMES BUJAC, OF CATONSVILLE, MARYLAND, ASSIGNOR OF ONE-HALF TO WILLIAM W. EATON, OF HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT.

ORE FURNACE AND REDUCER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 234,170, dated November 9, 1880.

Application filed February 24, 1880.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, JAMES BUJAO, a citizen of the United States, residing at Catonsville, in the county of Baltimore, in the State of Maryland, have invented Improvements in Ore Furnaces and Reducers, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to an apparatus for the purpose of reducing metalliferous ores. It can be made either stationary or portable, and of any required capacity. It admits of modifications or variation in its form without departing from the essential principles of construction necessary to produce the required results hereinafter set forth. In its construction it admits of the use of iron, brick, orother refractory substances, in whole or combined.

For the purpose of illustration, I will describe the present form and mode of construction of my portable reducer. This consists, essentially, of an outside case made of boiler or other iron properly put together; an inclosed ore-cylinder, furnished at its upper end with a feed-door and hopper and a safety-valve for the exit of vapors, and at its lower end with adischargedoor; a retort for the distillation of hydrocarbons; a pipe for conducting the vapors arising from the hydrocarbons to the ore-cylinder, and suitable furnaces for heating the ore-cylinder and retort.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a vertical section of said portable reducer. Fig. 2 is a front elevation of a stationary apparatus operating on the same principle an having two retorts.

Referring to Fig. l, A represents the orecylinder, placed in the center of the case at the pr per angle of inclination, so as to admit of it being charged and discharged at will, and provided at its upper end with a feed door or slide, C, surmounted by a hopper, B, for the reception of ores. Its lower extremity is fitted with a hinged door, a, for the discharge of ores. It is also provided with a safety-valve, D, to allow the escape of the vapors which otherwise would accumulate in its interior, and also to prevent the ingress of atmospheric air. When the slide C and door a are closed the cylinder A forms an air-tight or closed com- 50 partment for the treatment of ores.

Beneath the cylinder is a fire-box, H, of proper construction, furnished with grate I, ash-pit, door,'damper, 850. The products of the combustion arising from the fire, being deflected by the flue-board F, are made to pass through the center and return flues, E E E, over the .top of the cylinder A, and to escape through the stack G.

The semi-cylindrical retort K is under the cylinder A, and is closed by a hinged door, P, for the introduction and removal of the substances subjected to distillation. This retort K is also provided with a fire-box or furnace, M, and return-flue, from which the products arising from the combustion of the fuel are made to pass into the flue E of cylinder A, and thence into the stack G, common to both.

The retort K is connected to the cylinder A by a pipe, S, taking the vapors from the retort at L and delivering them within the ore 7o cylinder at It. This pipe S is also fitted with a valve, T, to regulate the passage of the vapors arising from the distillation to pass into the ore-cylinder A, and also a valve, U, through which the vapors may be allowed to pass or escape into the air at will. The pipe S is covered with asbestus.

The cylinder A, being filled with ore, is heate to the proper temperature, and this temperature varies with the nature of the ores to be treated. The vapors (the whole product) arisin g from the decomposition or destructive distillation of the hydrocarbons placed in the retort K, having been subjected to a high temperature, (which vapors arising fron1 th1s pro cess acquiring, possessing, and maintaining themselves at a high temperature,) are made or caused, while thus hot and in a nascent state. to pass directly from the retort K, in which they are generated, through the pipe S, into the ore-cylinder A, which is filled with ore at the proper temperature, and from which atmospheric influences are excluded. By this means the metallic compounds are quickly reduced to the metallic state without being 5 melted. The matrix, gangue, and rocky and earthy substances are entirely reduced to powder, or rendered so friable that their disintegration is easily effected by any ordinary or inexpensive crusher. Ico

The above description of my portable apparatus will apply in all essential particulars to the stationary apparatus shown in Fig. 2, which is constructed and operates in substantially the same manner, but is preferably made with two retorts, K K, one on each side, instead of one directly beneath the ore-cylinder.

My invention may be carried into effect by the apparatus herein described, either stationary or portable, or by any modification of it which will operate on the same principle to apply the products arising from the distillation of hydrocarbons in their crude state and highly heated, which conditions I have found to be essential for the disintegration of quartzrock by the agency of hydrocarbon gases.

It is obvious that the most convenient mode of applying these products crude and heated is to convey them directly and immediately from the generating-retort to the cylinder containing the ore through a short pipe, which (if it does not pass from the retort to the orecylinder Within the furnace) should be covered with asbestus, felt, or other like material, as before stated, to prevent radiation of heat.

The reducer is operated by filling the orecylinder with lumps of ore of such size as will pass into the cylinder through the slide-door in the bottom of the hopper. All the apertures being closed, this cylinder forms an airtight compartment. The retort, being charged with the hydrocarbon, is then heated to a high temperature by means of its furnace, and the vapors evolved or arising from the distillation are caused immediately at the moment of their generation and at the high temperature required to liberate them (hence acquired and possessed by them in this incipient and newlyborn condition) to pass immediately from the retort into the ore-cylinder, expelling the atmospheric air, which passes out through the automatic escape-valve. The tire being now lighted in the furnace of the ore-cylinder and the ore heated to the proper temperature, (which temperature varies with the nature of the ore to be treated,) and the valve on the connecting-pipe being so adjusted as to allow the hydrocarbon vapors from the retort to pass into the ore-cylinder in such quantities as will produce an interior pressure on the valve sufiicient to overcome the exterior resistance, thus raising the valve and allowing and insuring the expulsion of the vapors formed, a continuous flow of the hydrocarbon vapors through the ore-cylinder is maintained, keeping the heated ores in contact and surrounded with a moving current or atmosphere of the hot and newly-generated vapors arising from the distillation of the hydrocarbongoing on in the retort, and directly and immediately passing from said retort into the ore-cylinder without detention or deterioration. By this process the inetalliferous compounds are reduced to the metallic state and the earthy or rocky matrix or gangue is reduced to powder or rendered so friable as to need but a slight or inexpensive crusher for its further reduction.

It is now plainly shown that the whole working of the apparatus in the manner described provides for the generation of the necessary chemical reagents and their application in the condition and manner which is imperatively required to successfully produce the desired result, for it is a well-known and attested chemical fact that gases in their nascent state favor combination or chemical action, and that afiinity exerts its greatest energy at the moment of generation. Thus bodies which refuse to combine in their ordinary free state will and do combine when in the act of being liberated from combination.

Having thus described my invention, the following is what I claim as new therein and desire to secure by Letters Patent:

1. In an apparatus for reducing ores, the combination of a hydrocarbon-retort and an inclined ore-cylinder having the close feeddoor and a safety-valve at its upper end and a discharge-door at its lower end, and a suitable connection between said retort and cylinder, substantially as set forth.

2. Theinclinedore-cylinderA,having close feed -door 0, discharge-door a, and safetyvalve 1), in combination with the retort K, connecting-pipe S, and one or more furnaces, H M, for heating both the ore-cylinder and retort, substantially as herein set forth.

JAMES BUJAC. Witnesses UCTAVIUS KNIGHT, WALTER ALLEN. 

